Winter's Bone
by Drowningblonde
Summary: The Voltron Force have a Thanksgiving dinner feast. After dinner Nanny remembers the cold, starving days after the fall of Altea and how she was able to put meat on the table. *This story is part of both 'Razor's Edge' and 'Legend of Angel Falls' story arcs. As such it draws on elements from GoLion, DotU and Devil's Due Comic story lines.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron/Go Lion or any of their characters. They are the property of WEP and Devil's Due Comic and Toei Animation. All other characters are mine. This is written purely for entertainment purposes and I am not monetarily compensated in any way.**

 **A/N: This story started out on the (now defunct) Voltron RP on Facebook in 2011 as a 'round robin' between myself and Amarin Astarte. Since I was inspired by her delightfully dark Votron Force fic "Accidents," she deserves the credit for the creative turn that Part Two of this story takes. It has been sitting in my hard drive for several years and I finally got around to editing it. The title is from the amazing novel Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell and the movie based on the same book directed by Debra Granik and starring Jenifer Lawrence.**

 **A special thanks to NarrowPath for beta reading this for me. Your suggestions were spot on! :)**

 **Winter's Bone**

 **Part 1**

1

The candles in the floral center piece burned bright, glinting off the crystal stemware and the gold leaf scroll pattern of the hand painted china. Both were gifts to the crown-part of a massive fifty place setting service of formal tableware-from a major Terran communications corporation. They had recently asked permission to do business on Altea.

"Oh, I'm stuffed!" Hunk leaned back from the white linen covered table and patted his belly.

"Me too! Nanny, this was awesome," Pidge agreed. He looked longingly at the half eaten caro pie on the table.

"Danke," Nanny beamed as she bustled around the table refilling coffee from a silver and gold plated carafe, "Take another slice if you want it—you're a growing boy, you need to put some meat on your bones anyway."

Hunk looked pleadingly at her.

"Okay, you too...it's a holiday isn't it?" she said as she set the coffee carafe on the table, cut a slice and slid it onto to Pidge's plate and then cut another for Hunk. She looked over at Allura, "Dumpling, do you want the last piece?" In her good mood she accidentally let the affectionate nickname slip.

"Oh, no Thank you, Nanny. I could barely finish this one! Another I really will be a dumpling," Allura declined, smiling.

"Really Nanny, this meal was excellent! Especially the ham...I forgot how good it tastes," Keith said.

"Danke, that ham is from that pig you and Lance got that time—its been in the salt cellar for almost six months." Nanny replied picking up the carafe and returned to serving coffee.

"Tasty little sucker, isn't he?-oh, no thanks," Lance said waving her away from his coffee cup and refilled his own wine glass from the decanter.

Nanny arched an eyebrow, but decided not to reprimand him. It was a holiday after all. "Ja, very. We'll eat the other leg at Christmas."

"Madam? Shall we clear this?" a servant standing at the sideboard asked regarding the leftover dinner portions.

"Take it back to the kitchen," Nanny said, "and tell them I said not to be greedy! Everyone gets their share!"

"Nanny, why don't you sit down and eat that last piece of pie?" Coran gestured to her empty seat at the table.

Nanny paused. She had been cooking all day. Maybe she had done enough work and she should relax and enjoy the results of her labor. "You know, I don't mind if I do," she set the carafe down on the sideboard and signaled a servant to fill her cup.

The governess added sugar and cream to her coffee as a servant plated the dessert and set it in front of her. She took a sip of her coffee and then picked up her fork. She hesitated, the utensil hovering just over the golden flaky crust glistening with granules of white sugar. Bright purple-red juice from the caro berries puddled on the white china. She smiled. This had been a lovely meal, at an elegant table. She stabbed her fork through the crust and savored the sweet savory delight of a holiday tradition in the making.

And best of all, for the first time in a very, very long time there had been enough for everybody. Truly it was something to be thankful for.

A moment later the sound of voices raised in argument came from the kitchen.

Nanny set her fork down on her plate with a clank and pushed her self away from the table in a huff. "Mien Gott!"

"Nanny! Finish your pie," Allura pleaded.

Nanny gave her an exasperated look, "I wish these idiots would let me sit long enough to do it! It's like herding cats!" She stormed off toward the kitchen to fix whatever problem had occurred amongst the kitchen staff in the whole fifteen minutes of her absence.

Ten minutes later she stood at the head of a trestle table, a long, newly stained wood affair, set away from the cooking and work areas. She sliced off equal portions of the leftover ham and roast fennik and served them to the silent line of a half a dozen shamefaced servants.

After the last person was served Nanny set the cutlery down on the butcher's block. She stared down at the ham bone, ragged chunks of meat clung to it. It would perfect for a soup tomorrow. The sound of laughter from the servants' table intruded her thoughts. She glanced over at them; six people eating at a table with over flowing plates. And in the dining room another seven had been fed to bursting. And the larder was still full. _How many years has it been since that had happened?_ _Not since before the war...ten years? Twelve? No, it would be eleven because this year doesn't count. This year the hungry days are gone...this winter won't be like other winters._ And it certainly wouldn't be like the Long Winter. The Long Winter. Two years of darkness, ice and cold that followed on the heels of Zarkon's Armageddon. She suddenly felt very weary. She stepped away from the carving block, opened a cabinet and pulled down a bottle of brandy. She poured herself a glass left the bottle open on the counter and walked toward the door propped open to the back courtyard.

"Madam? Are you alright?" the sous chef called out as she passed.

"I'm fine. I just need some air," Nanny answered and stepped out into the crisp autumn evening.

She sat down on a bench just outside the door and sighed. The air was crisp and cool holding just enough frost for her breath to make faint clouds. Enough frost for her to shudder at the thought of winter coming soon and her belly to churn in phantom pains of starvation. She took a swallow of brandy. The liquor warmed her all the way down, calming her nerves and settling her stomach. The Long Winter was over. Had been over for years, but the changing season and the chill in the air dredged up memories of it the governess wished she could forget.

2

The glow of the LED lantern cast harsh shadows across the child princess' face. Her once full rosy cheeks were thin and sallow. Hollows shadowed her large blue eyes, fever bright against the pallor of her complexion and her once glossy, golden hair hung dull and stringy about her shoulders. She held the contents of her cupped hands out for the woman's inspection.

"See, Nanny? Look what I found! In the tunnel with the pretty crystals, and there's plenty more, too." Allura said, her voice raspy with congestion.

"Ah, Mein Darling! Look at all those mushrooms! You are the resourceful one, aren't you!" Nanny, guardian to the sole surviving heir of the House of Altair, smiled gently. "Bring them here, closer, into the light so I can see them better," she gestured to an aluminum bowl resting on a flat boulder which served as a makeshift table in the cave the woman and girl had taken refuge in.

Allura dumped her foraged bounty of fungi into the bowl and Nanny caught her breath as she saw the tell tale bright orange gills on the underside of three of the mushrooms. Devil's Cloak. Meaty, delicious and deadly as sin.

"Allura, you didn't eat any of these did you?" Nanny asked, trying and failing to keep the edge of panic out of her voice.

Allura shook her head, "No, I did just like you said: to bring them to you, first. Raw mushrooms can make me sick like last time."

Nanny eyed her skeptically, "Are you sure? You're not lying, to me, are you?" She regretted harsh her tone immediately when the young girl shook her head in denial, her lower lip trembling and her eyes filled with tears. "Alright, alright...none of that now. You're a good girl, and I believe you. Come, help me sort them for our dinner," Nanny said more gently.

It could have been lunch or even breakfast for all she knew. In the perpetual dark of the cave, day and night no longer had meaning. She had tried at first to keep some semblance of a schedule. Some normalcy to keep the seeping insanity of the constant gloom at bay. Even after the satellite connection to her comm was lost for good and she no longer knew what time it was, she used tasks to pass the hours. After awhile that too proved to be an exercise in futility.

Now, all she had to go on was the weekly venture to the mouth of the cave. The early spring had turned inexplicably to a wet winter with a perpetually white-grey sky. Even when she ventured outside, Nanny had a hard time telling if it was morning or afternoon. Even night, which she could barely recognize because the cloud cover blanketed the once star filled sky, had an eerie glow-like it was lit from within by a lazon torch. It was as bone chilling as the cold damp.

Allura and Nanny had been hiding in the cavern for months by now. They had survived this far on carefully rationed supplies. Supplies she had stolen from Baron Lith after realizing it was no longer safe for them to remain in the military bunker he and the last of his soldiers had managed to secure. She didn't trust the Baron. He was a Drule after all, and he had much to gain from handing over the last living member of the Altean royal family over to Zarkon. So, for weeks she had pilfered supplies in preparation for hers and the princess' escape. Then late one night, a huge geological event in Moira provided the distraction she needed. At the time no one knew exactly what had happened; if it was an explosion or an eruption. All that anyone had known was that seismographs across the planet had registered a powerful earthquake in Altea's most southern continent and a large plume of ash originating from there was spreading across the stratosphere.

After dark she had roused the princess. There was no need to change her from her pajamas. People under siege remained dressed and ready to bug out.

"But I thought the Baron was our friend?" a sleepy and confused Allura had asked.

"I'm not so sure we can trust him anymore, Liebling," Nanny had answered.

"Who can we trust?" Allura asked, her blue eyes bright and innocent.

Nanny had smiled and cupped Allura's cheek, "You can trust me and I can trust you,"

They crept into the motor pool, pushing an all terrain vehicle out of the cargo bay. Then Nanny started the nearly silent fuel cell engine and they rode off into the darkness. They navigated by moonlight, headed west, avoiding all roads and settlements through the night.

By the time the sun rose red and weak through gray clouds they had reached a wide river with thick old growth forest on the opposite bank. It was the New Rhinland boarder. They had made it. So far so good. Nanny unpacked the heavy field pack of supplies and sent the vehicle, with its' half depleted battery, on auto pilot north east from their current position. It was a decoy to lead anyone, friend-if there was still such a thing-or enemy, searching for them astray.

"Don't we need-" Allura had started to ask as she watched the machine roll away over the level flood plain. Glimpses of green new-growth peeked through the soil and remains of winter browned grasses.

"No, we walk from here."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe. Some where no one can find us." Nanny looped her arms though the shoulder straps shrugged the heavy field pack onto her back then opened her navigation app on her comm.

The girl and the woman walked for miles though the woods, sticking to game trails. The weather had worsened, the gray clouds had moved from the horizon and covered the sky and a cold and steady rain had fallen since mid-morning. They had put on brown camouflage patterned rain ponchos and trudged on; the bare branches of the forest canopy offered little protection and the ground became slick with mud.

They were forced to stop often, sometimes to dive for cover under dead fall and scrub when squadrons of air ships flew low overhead, but mostly because the back pack grew heavier with each of Nanny's steps. The muscles of her lower back ached and her shoulders and thighs cramped. She had not considered the difficulty the extra weight would cause when she had first packed the thing. Nor had she thought of how strenuous the journey would be on the child princess. The young girl didn't complain, but her struggle to keep going was evident.

Finally, near sunset and not quite halfway to their destination, they were forced to stop for the night. As adventurous and athletic as she had been in those days, she was not outdoorsy by any stretch of the imagination. Yet she knew to gather branches and lay them across two trees that had fallen at a right angle one on top of the other and covered them with her poncho. She covered that with dead leaves and they crawled under their makeshift tent and lay on the damp ground huddled together for warmth though the long night.

They started again when dawn rose gray and cold once more. They ate their breakfast and Nanny checked their route on her comm once again. Before they left, believing she could return to retrieve them, Nanny decided to lighten her pack and cache some of their supplies. She wasted an hour of precious energy on a small hole she dug underneath the two trees which had fallen in an "X".

"Are we almost there?" Allura asked, once they stopped for a meal.

Nanny checked the navigation app on her comm. "Almost. We should be there tonight, if we go faster than yesterday."

Allura nodded and smiled, her teeth bright white against her dirt-smudged face, "At least it's not raining today."

"Well, there is that, mein dumpling."

They traveled two days before they reached their destination with Nanny caching another bundle of supplies along the way.

The smell of smoke a kilometer away should have alerted Nanny that someone had found it first. But Nanny was not a survivalist and the idea of fire still conjured notions of warmth and safety. Luckily, though, as the scent grew stronger, something primal and maternal made her wary.

She and Allura crouched behind a large laurel tree and watched as a group of four men stood around the fire passing around a pipe. The distinctive orange _rassa_ smoke wafted out of it. Behind the men was a large metal doorway set in concrete leading into the hillside. It was wide open. The men were wearing a rag-tag combination of civilian clothes and Altean military uniforms, curiously devoid of emblems. Two had rifles slung across their backs and another had left his leaning against a tree. Nanny noticed something odd about the weapons. Suddenly she realized the weapons weren't Terran; they were Drule. These men were deserters and traitors.

"Who are-" Allura started to whisper.

Nanny shook her head and pressed her fingers to Allura's lips, silencing her. This bunker had been one of several safe houses built specifically for the nobility and heads of government and their families. Allura's cousin was the duke of New Rhinland and Nanny had thought to bring her here to her blood relatives where she would be safe. But where were they? What had happened to them?

Suddenly a young woman bolted out of the entrance of the bunker. She was barefoot under a long blue skirt. Her brown hair was loose and her bodice was torn open exposing her breasts. A shirtless man followed close behind her in pursuit. The girl ran to the forest, directly towards Nanny and the princess. But before she could reach the trees one of the guards grabbed her around the waist. Laughing as she struggled, he dragged her back to the man who had come after her. The shirtless man raised his fist and punched her in the side of her face. She fell to the ground and lay there trembling, until the man grabbed her by her hair and dragged her, crawling on all fours, back inside the bunker.

Nanny felt icy cold fingers wrap around her heart. She turned to see Allura's face ashen under the layer of grime. The girl's eyes were wide but her lips were pressed firmly together, too terrified to scream.

 _Mein Gott_ , Nanny thought, _what have I done?_

Taking advantage of the guards' momentary distraction she gestured to Allura to remain silent and to follow her. They crept slowly back down the hillside as quickly and quietly as they could.

"What are we going to do?" Allura whispered after they had gone a while.

Nanny didn't answer. _What_ are _we going to do? I have killed us both. Nein, nein...don't think that way. We'll find something. Somewhere._

"Can't we go back to Baron Lith's?" Allura asked.

"Maybe," Nanny answered. Even if it was safe -it was impossible-they were hundreds of miles away.

Around mid-afternoon it started to rain again so they set up camp. Nanny made another shelter using branches and her poncho. They ate their MRE's and then lay down to rest, Nanny cradled the little princess while she slept.

Nanny didn't remember falling asleep but a loud crash of thunder woke her up. It was pitch dark and she was alone. Allura was gone. Nanny bolted upright, knocking her head against one of the branches in the low shelter then crawled out and looked around frantically for the princess. The rain was coming down hard and a flicker of lightning illuminated everything fro an instant. Nanny thought she saw Allura standing a short distance off.

"Princess!" she called, rushing in that direction. Lightning flashed again, and Nanny realized it was a tree stump, the raw wood on top mimicking the blonde of Allura's light hair, the bark on the bottom her rain poncho. "Princess!" she called again, louder.

The woman looked around in every direction as rain pelted her in the face. Where was she? Had she gone off to relieve herself and gotten lost in the dark? Nanny's heart hammered in her chest. She opened her comm and turned on the flashlight feature shining it in all directions, searching for the princess.

"Nanny?"

She heard Allura's voice faintly over the pouring rain.

"Allura? Where are you?" Nanny called out.

"I'm here! Down here!"

Nanny followed the direction of Allura's voice downhill. She found her standing fifty yards from a roaring stream. "Mein Gott! What are doing all the way down here? I thought—I thought—Oh, my baby!" The woman wrapped her arms around the soaking wet girl.

"We have to leave now. Right now." Allura said and pushed away firmly and looked at something behind her.

"Come back to the tent, it's the middle of the night in the pouring rain. We'll break our necks and drown."

"No, Nanny! We have to go! Now!"

"No. We'll leave at first light, it's too dark and dangerous."

"This is a royal command! We must go!"

Nanny stared at the young girl, startled at the authority in her voice. Allura was usually an obedient child, something was certainly important. "Alright, well, we'll need our things, then."

Allura ran ahead of her. Nanny gathered their supplies and slipped her poncho on, shaking her head. Perhaps it was better traveling at night in the rain, no one else was likely to be about.

Allura led the way back down to the river. "There's a boat down this way," she said confidently.

Nanny frowned, "What are you talking about?"

No sooner had she spoken, than lightning flashed and illuminated a large, dark triangle in the sky approaching slowly from the south. It was a Drule air ship.

"Allura, run!" Nanny shouted

They ran along the river bank, away from the path of the ship. Allura slipped and fell but got up quickly. And just as she had said, a short way down the river bank a small boat with a red painted hull was flipped upside down where someone had left it and never come back.

Nanny checked the navigation app on her comm once more but the screen wouldn't load. There was no satellite connection. Again providence had saved them from her naivete. Had she been able to connect- the signal would have alerted the Drule ship to their location as sure as if she had waved them down with the spot light.

They got in the boat, and let the swift current take them down the rain swollen stream. The boat only had one usable oar. Throughout the long night Nanny used it to push them away from rocks and debris. Twice they got stuck, and Nanny had to get out of the boat and dislodge it manually. Once the current dragged her under and she was only able to regain the surface by getting swept against a submerged tree trunk. And on and on the night went, pouring sheets of rain they had to bail at times to stay afloat, other times they curled up fetal on the bottom hiding from airships they could hear over head. Shortly before dawn the stream became shallow and wide. The current slowed until at last the boat's hull scraped the bottom and could no longer float. Once they got out of the boat it regained its' buoyancy. Nanny thought about pulling it to shore, then decided against it, and let it float down stream instead. Another red herring like the all terrain vehicle -she didn't want to leave any clues that would make them easy to follow.

They were back into the wood. This forest had thick old growth evergreens and large lime rock formations jutting out through the mossy ground. It was not long before they came across the narrow entrance of the cave. After shining the flashlight of her comm and tossing rocks in to check for wildlife, Nanny shimmied in the two foot by three foot entrance. It increased in size dramatically once she had belly crawled about a dozen feet, opening into a large chamber about fifteen feet wide and ten feet high. Some dried scat was on the floor; evidence that animals had used it at one point for a den, but it was long abandoned. The chamber extended back even further, but she didn't want to leave Allura outside alone.

They had been there ever since. When they had first left Baron Lith is had been early spring, green shoots of grass had just started to show and some of the sap and flowering trees were beginning to bud. Nanny had expected the weather to warm and spring to arrive with all sorts of savory edibles and sweet berries to supplement their dwindling food stores. But spring never came, and the sky grew perpetually gray and a cold wet winter descended on them, killing all the new growth.

The few times she had ventured out of the cave to forage for food she had seen and followed some animal tracks. Mostly small scratches from orik and places where feral pigs had rooted whatever could be eaten out of the ground. In those places, if she was lucky, she could find a few carrot sized tubers if the pigs had left any. But usually she found next to nothing edible. A handful or two of hard sour caro that had never come to full fruit or ripened at all. Berries which were also small, bitter and unripe. Some edible water plants with stalks that tasted like garlic, but nothing to actually make a meal out of. The survival kit had snares and fishing line and hooks, but she had had no luck with them so far. Now she only went out to collect wood for the small fire they used for light, warmth and cooking.

Then they had found the mushrooms. She and Allura had made a game of exploring the cave's passages, always careful to mark their way so they wouldn't get lost. Some of the caverns were astonishingly beautiful. They had found one with mineral deposits in green, blue and terracotta with sparkling quartz crystal jutting out of the walls and the floor. They had moved from the entrance into that chamber. Nanny said that it was more fit for a princess. Another had a deep subterranean pond fed by and underground river. So fresh water was in ready supply, and Nanny had sworn she had seen milky pale crustaceans in the shallow places. But she had also seen strange ripples and swells,suggesting something larger plumbed the obsidian depths. She was fearful of getting closer to the edge than necessary.

But the mushrooms had been like manna from heaven. At first there were hundreds of all shapes and sizes. They reminded Nanny of something that one would encounter in a fairy story. Some were large, with caps as her hand with the fingers spread open and stalks thicker than her thumb. Others were round, waxy white half spheres. Allura's favorite was long and thin with a round ball with tiny black polka dots all over it. And more yet were fan shaped and had a blue bioluminescent border like a ribbon around the edge. Nanny had used her comm's library to look up the different kinds to see which were edible. There were several species that were poisonous and several more that were not listed. So they stuck to those which they knew, but now they were almost gone.

Nanny looked at the pile of fungi in front of her and asked, "What shall it be for your dinner tonight, Your Highness? Mushroom soup or mushroom stew?"

"I'd would like a nice hot soup tonight, please." Allura said, then coughed again.

"As you command." Nanny began dividing them up. "One for me..." she placed one mushroom in her bowl. "Two for you..." she placed two mushrooms into Allura's bowl. "Three for me..." and placed only one in her bowl with a plunk. And so on she went giving the far larger portion to the gaunt little girl sitting across from her. She took Allura' bowl and her own and added water, a dash of salt and a handful of the dried green water plants, then set the bowls on the coals of the fire to heat.

Nanny watched the water heat in the bowl and mused at how foolish she had been to avoid carbohydrates and count fat grams and calories. How spoiled she had been to skip meals and waste food because it was 'too fattening' or wasn't to her taste.

She had been overly concerned with the dimples on the backs of her thighs and a little swell of plump on her tummy. Coran had always preferred thin women, his wife had been long and lithe. Nanny had seethed with jealously over her slim, athletic legs and defined arms, never mind that she had a face like weasel and a personality to match.

She was so insecure then, pathologically so as only the vain and privileged are. And what good did any of it get her? Coran's wife had found out about their affair and left him. She didn't divorce him. No, she'd never give up her status as the wife of the Prime Minster. She just took his child and moved to be with her family on Ebb, leaving both the minister and his mistress disgraced. And tonight his wife was safe and warm, probably with a full belly. Coran? Who knew? Imprisoned? Enslaved? Most likely dead. Nanny ran her hands down her thighs, half of what they once were, boney knees and tendons prominent under slack skin. _I'll bet I'm under my goal weight- finally thin enough_ , she thought, laughing to herself at the irony and blinking away tears.

A wisp of steam curled off the cooking soup and Nanny stared at it mesmerized. _If I get out of this alive I will never take food for granted again._


	2. Chapter 2

****Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron/Go Lion or any of their characters. They are the property of WEP and Devil's Due Comic, Toei Animation and Dreamworks. All other characters are mine. This is written purely for entertainment purposes and I am not monetarily compensated in any way.****

 **Winter's Bone**

 **Part 2**

 **1**

Nanny shimmied out of the mouth of the cave. A watery sun struggled through a veil of leaden clouds. Its weak light glinted through the vaulted canopy of ice coated trees like frosted church glass. It was a silent world entombed in white and gray. She stood up, picked up her makeshift spear, which doubled as a walking stick, and brushed off her pants. Her breath made steamy clouds in the frigid air as she looked around at the snow shrouded landscape. The rustle of a light wind through the branches was the only sound. Even the low rumbling sonic booms of far off Drule ships had ceased many weeks ago and she had grown accustomed to the quiet. There was safety in the silence.

It had been many months, more months than she could reckon had passed since they found the cave. Spring had vanished and summer had never come. The weather had gone from months of wet and cold, to months of ice and cold, until finally it had turned to a soggy blanket of white snow. There was no way to know how much time had really passed, unless one could read the stars or the slight change of the position of the sun on the horizon. Living in a technologically advanced society, Nanny had never paid any attention to such mundane topics.

She left the cave regularly now, several times a week, setting snares in hopes of catching something- anything- for them to eat. She had to, their supplies had completely run out and the mushrooms were nearly gone. The rest of their brief stroke of good luck had run out as well. For the last several weeks they had been subsisting on one or two mushrooms a day, boiling tree bark and what bits of leather were on their gear. If they were going to have any chance to survive she had to find food.

Twice before she had gone to the river and back tracked along its frozen banks in hopes of finding their cached supplies. Twice she had gotten lost, once for the whole night. By the time she had gotten back to the cave Allura had been hysterical with fear; afraid that Nanny had been found "by those bad men."

Nanny's hands and feet had also turned blue. They were stiff and numb and her nails were a bruised purple and had burned like fire for hours. She was grateful she didn't lose them and had learned a vital survival lesson: If you need it, keep it with you. Because when it's gone, it's gone for good.

But it was on that day, even darker and gloomier than today, exhausted and staggering from wandering through the night on her way back from that failed journey she had found the stream. It cut deep through the limestone and ran swiftly, never freezing thoroughly. She had followed it, dead reckoning by the angle of the sun and heading uphill against the current.

She flipped the hood of her poncho over her head and made her way to it now.

It had been a life-line, in the most literal sense of the word. It ran diagonally behind the cave in a meandering path. All Nanny had to do was follow it and keep an eye on the angle of the sun when leaving and returning. It was most likely fed by the river they had floated down to find the cave all those months ago. The stream had saved her- and the princess- not quite two months ago.

She had stopped for drink at one of the small pools dammed up and crusted around the edges by ice. It was then she noticed that she was not the only thing roaming about in this unnatural winter. Small rabbit foot prints and deep gouges from the cloven hooves of feral pigs patterned the snow near the water's edge. Rabbits and hogs, imported from Terra, didn't hibernate through winter like most of Altea's wildlife. It occurred to her that if she set a snare here, she might catch something.

And then she noticed something else. A slight movement in the stream, undulating against the ripples of the current. Blending in with the rocky-sandy bottom a cauda fish the size of her forearm -named so because it had legs like a salamander- fanned it's gossamer-like gills filtering algae for its dinner. Something deep in the primal parts of Nanny's brain understood this was her last chance. Her last chance to get a meal of life saving protein. The last chance for her and the princess to survive this frozen white hell.

She stretched out her hand slowly- very slowly- so what shadow she would cast would not startle the fish. First resting the tips of her fingers in the icy water, then slowly submerging them knuckle by knuckle until her hand was hovering inches above the fish. The fished stilled for a moment and slid back a fraction in the current, its fluttering gills just under Nanny's fingers. It was then, without any conscious thought of her own, she struck. Her aim was true but her hand had grown stiff and numb with cold. She didn't get a grip on the fish and it thrashed out of her hand before she could get it out of the water. She fell back, sitting on her bony haunches in the snow and mud. A keening wail issued from her and she rocked back and forth, devastated.

A splash got her attention. The fish hadn't darted away. It was still in the pool writing and contorting near the surface. Although she didn't catch it as she had planned, she had injured its gills. It couldn't breathe and it couldn't swim away.

Nanny jumped to her feet and splashed into the pool knee deep. She grabbed the fish with both hands, but it writhed out of her grip again. It took several more tries-she practically chased it onto the bank before she got it out of the pool. She soaked herself in the process, but in the moment she didn't feel the frigid water. She was too focused on making her kill. The fish flopped and twisted, leaving bright red splotches of blood in the snow from damaged gills. Nanny pounded it over and over on the side of its head with the heel of her frozen blue hand. Finally the fish died. It was then she started to feel the cold wrap around her wet clothes and seep into her bones and noticed the flakes of snow that had begun to fall. Fear ripped through her fiercer than any winter wind. She was still miles from home in a gathering storm. And the princess, her sweet baby girl, was still alone in the dark, starving.

She had made it back just as the snow began to fall heavily-she had been closer than she realized-clutching the limp fish to to her chest. She never forgot that bone deep cold or how warm the cave had been when she first entered. Or how sweet that fish had tasted. They had eaten the whole thing- or tried to anyway. Their shrunken stomachs didn't let them. But they had had several days' meals from it and boiled the bones for soup which Nanny strained out with a cloth.

Later, when she was gathering water at the underground river she had seen the translucent cast off shell of a prawn. It was large, perhaps as long as her hand. She had gotten the idea to use the fins as bait for a trot line.

It had worked. Several hours later when she checked, three of the white creatures wriggled on their hooks. She pulled them out, surprised at their weight. One was the size of a lobster. And that's how she decided to cook them. And they were just as delicious.

She had reserved some of the meat for bait and the system had worked. She was able catch a several prawns a week. She had also set lines out in the stream outside, along with setting snares where she noticed the rabbit and pig tracks. She hadn't managed to catch a pig yet, one had been snared but had been able to snap the line. But she did catch one more cauda fish and she had had some luck with rabbits, snaring two.

The first she had found dead. Luckily the bitter cold had kept the meat fresh and they had rabbit stew. The marrow from the bones made a surprisingly rich broth. The second was still alive when she found it. The snare had cut deep into its hind leg as it struggled to escape and she could see the white tendons through the creature's fur. It stared at her with large, terrified eyes and its sides heaved.

Nanny had picked up a palm-sized rock from the edge of the stream. "I'm sorry," she said then crushed the animals skull.

But that had been weeks ago. Now her lines, all of them, were coming empty. Not because she wasn't catching anything, although her catch had been less than usual. But because something was eating them first.

Her rabbit snares had been sprung, but they were empty. She found nothing of her catch except for bits of fur and patches of pink and red blood trampled into the snow. Those disgusting pigs had learned this was a good place to find a helpless meal. She had decided she needed to move them to another spot along the bank.

But what was poaching the trot lines in the under ground river disturbed her the most. After the second time she had found only the heads attached she had decided to set the line and watch. Either to be there to pull in her catch or to see what was getting it.

She didn't have to wait long. Within an hour after the line being cast, she saw a small tug and she hurried over to see. A prawn was nibbling on the bait, but not quite hooked. Nanny watched, rapt, silently urging the creature to take bigger bites.

The monster came out of nowhere the pitch black deep and she shrieked. It had a gollum's head with blind blue eyes and shark teeth. Bioluminescent spots glowed around its mouth. She only saw it for the second or two it took to come into view and snatch the prawn whole in its gaping, black hole of a mouth. She caught a glimpse of its body as it spun around in retreat. It had stubby limbs and a long eel-like tail, and it was nearly the size of a person.

Nanny clutched a hand to her chest. Mein Gott! That explained the ripples and swells. And the strange marks in the dirt around the water's edge that she had seen recently. A shudder had coursed through her as she remembered stories she heard of river monsters that snatched people from their boats from the local people. She had dismissed it as tall tales that every culture had. But now she had seen one with her own eyes. How many times had she sent Allura down here to fetch some water or wash the bowls? That thing could have gotten her at any time. It could have gotten Nanny when she was leaning over the water casting the lines. Nanny wondered how far it could crawl outside the water. Could it breathe air? She forbade Allura to go down there again.

After several days she finally got the nerve to return to the pool. When she did she brought a long branch with one end she had sharpened into a point. She saw more tracks and the swirl of the creatures long tail in the dirt. She turned and left and hadn't returned.

They used melted snow for water now.

Nanny turned west and trudged through the snow in the direction of the stream to check her snares. She set out with hope as she did each time she left. Today would be the day she found something. It had to be. Hunger had stopped gnawing at her belly. It existed now as aching joints, thinning hair, loosening teeth and a constant hollowness that radiated outwards from within her bones.

She noted a tangle of pig tracks in the snow. She decided to follow them. Following the pigs had lead her to food before and it was likely it would again. If not an actual meal, a clue as to how to find one.

After a short distance she saw a hole had been burrowed in the snow. Dark shreds of tree bark and feathers littered the edges of the crater. Inside it she saw tell tale red bloodstains in the snow and a hole had been chewed in a hollow log. The pigs had found an orik hibernating.

A wave of envy washed over Nanny so strong it almost felt like rage. _Damn those pigs!_ They had left nothing for her to even scavenge. But they did give her hope that the trees offered more than stringy bark to eat. She looked around at the bare trees, noting hollows midway up their trunks where fennik might build their winter nests, and then down at humps in the snow where more logs might be, hiding an unsuspecting meal.

She crept closer, and knelt down and peered into the hole the pigs had made. She examined the log, trying to notice anything unique about it that would make it a likely home for slumbering critters. She saw something round and smooth deeper within the log, mottled spots made it hard to distinguish from the the wood it was embedded in. She reached her hand inside. It was a different texture than the meaty wet of the damp wood. It was smooth like a river rock. Her heart skipped a beat. An egg. Somewhere deep in her memory she remembered a dinner party when some Terran scientist had droned on endlessly about the specialness of the egg laying marsupial orik. They laid their eggs in the autumn, he had said, leaving them to mature and hatch through the winter were sleeping. Nanny paused as this seemingly useless knowledge sunk in: if the orik had laid it's egg, it was already past the Autumnal Vertice. Although cold, wet and unrecognizable, both spring and summer had past and Altea's long winter was coming. She pulled her hand out and slumped over and rested her forehead on the tree's trunk. Her eyes burned and she blinked a hot tear slid down her nose. She let it fall. _Mien Gott. If we're ever going to survive, we're going to need a miracle._

After a moment took a deep breath and willfully forced her despair aside. _Crying isn't going to help anything._ She wiped her eyes and reached back into the tree feeling for the egg. As her fingers pried the tennis ball sized shell out of its nest she did believe the orik were special creatures. _Very special indeed_ , she thought as she slipped the egg into a cargo pocket of her pants. She felt around to make sure there wasn't anything else, and shined the light of her comm in the log. She saw another swell in the wood and reached deep inside. She was a few inches short. She laid down in the snow, careful not to crush the egg in her pocket. There was another egg! Stupid, greedy pigs! They didn't get everything this time.

She worked it loose and pulled it out. It was slightly smaller than the first. She set it in the snow as she got to her feet. She put in the other pocket. Her heart was pounding with excitement. Two eggs! One for each of them She wavered indecisively if she should go check her snares or if she should go straight back to the cave with her delicate bounty. She thought of the poached snares and decided to check quickly. Even if they were empty, snow was in the air and if it came down heavy she wouldn't get a chance to retrieve them. Those snares were the difference between life and death. She couldn't lose another.

She felt her pockets, gently caressing the eggs to reassure herself they were there and double backed toward the stream. She followed it down, noting that the current was so strong that it still hadn't frozen thoroughly, just the edges.

She approached the place where her snares were set. Empty. Again. Not totally empty, though. This time a foot had been left, still caught extra snug in the wire loop. Something was off about it though. The pigs normally left nothing. Small packs of them roamed together and fought over every last scrap.

She bent down and picked up the foot. It was cut clean though, the wound seared shut. She frowned in confusion as she worked the loop open and loosed the remains. She turned it over in her hands. A feeling of alarm started to creep over her. This looked like it had been done with a knife.

She dropped the rabbit's foot at looked around, and then she spied something else. Some thing that turned her bones to water. A set of deep boot prints in the mud around the stream and dirty broken ice along it edge.

They were not alone here any more. Someone had been here and had poached her rabbit. Maybe they had been doing it all along, not the pigs. She examined the boot prints more closely. They were large and the stride was long. This someone was male.

Nanny looked around frantic, checking to see if she was being watched and cursing herself for leaving such an obvious trail back to the cave in the snow. She willed herself to be calm. It was one set of footprints. This was the first time she had seen them. She was sure she would have noticed them before; she had known something was off this time immediately. She wondered if they were friend or foe? Whichever it was likely they were as desperate as she and the princess were. And that made whoever they were very dangerous.

She picked up the rabbit foot and loosed the snare from its mooring. She coiled it up and put in her pocket along with the rabbit foot.

She thought of another snare she had set further down. This one was set for pigs, fastened to the limb of a large tree with gnarly roots growing right into the stream. She should go check it? The idea of a large catch there waiting for her was tempting. But the thought of accidentally meeting her rabbit thief squelched that idea. She fondled one of the eggs. She needed to get back to the princess and get her fed. She stepped gingerly down into the stream, ignoring the coldness of the water.

She headed back to the cave using the stream to hide her tracks. She knew it might be a futile effort. That whoever had stolen her rabbit might have already found and followed her track. _Nein...nein...I would have have seen their footprints in the snow as easily as they had seen mine. They've kept to the stream like this. Smart._ Nanny reasoned.

Her homemade spear splashed into the water as she used it to haul herself up over a small waterfall. _I'm going to have to kill that monster down there in the cave with this stick._ She shuddered. _Maybe he'll taste good._


End file.
